The Amos Project

Sep 15

Syracuse Center of Excellence receives Greening USA award

Photo – left to right:  Edward A. Bogucz and Mark Lichtenstein, Syracuse Center of Excellence and W. Calvin Bowne, Awards Committee Chair, GreeningUSA.


Earlier this year, on May 26, it was announced at the GreeningUSA Annual Meeting that the Syracuse Center of Excellence had been given a GreeningUSA “Greening Our Community” Award in the category of “Research and Development” for convening parties around issues such as green infrastructure, EPA grant opportunities, LEED building and brownfield remediation.

Because of conflicting schedules, GreeningUSA was finally able to present the award in person on July 28 at their Board meeting in the Center of Excellence.

Accepting on behalf of the Syracuse Center of Excellence were Edward A. Bogucz and Mark Lichtenstein.

About GreeningUSA: Greening USA, Inc. is a membership based, not-for-profit, 501(c)3 corporation founded in 2004 in Syracuse, New York and governed by a 12 person all volunteer Board of Directors. Through education, research, partnering, and advocacy, it is advancing the vision of American communities that are much more environmentally, economically, and socially sustainable.

Jun 17

How Green Is Your Building?

CNY Business Exchange asks Joel Delmonico, vice president / market manager for Clear Channel, about its green project The Amos Project:

Click here to download the article. (PDF)

NYSTAR/Cornell JumpStart Program Accepting Applications

The JumpStart program of the Cornell Center for Materials Research (CCMR) is designed to help small NYS businesses solve concrete problems related to materials through collaborations with university research centers.

The program provides:

   •   A one-semester project utilizing university expertise
   •   An opportunity to build a relationship with university faculty and facilities
   •   Up to $5000 in matching NYSTAR funding

Applications for the fall semester are due June 25, 2010.

Click here for more info.

Jun 03

Mary Walshok Founder of the CONNECT Program in San Diego

Joel Delmonico invited a small group of local leaders  who understand the need to find a way to keep ideas that are sprouting up here (CNY) from going elsewhere to create economic development, attended a  meeting and conference call with Mary Walshok of CONNECT on Thursday May 20^th at The AMOS Project .  Back in 1986, Mary Walshok co-founded the CONNECT organization “to accelerate the nascent innovation economy in San Diego” … 29 years later, San Diego is the wireless innovation capital of the world and one of the most important biotech clusters in the country.  Mary helped form the culture of collaboration that is a vital component of creating an innovation economy, attracting investors that were eager to support early stage companies.  She and her colleagues executed the strategy that resulted in the mobilization of regional assets to create economic prosperity around knowledge based companies that sprang from a productive university/industry interaction ( a transformational potential that exists here).

She sees many of the same dynamics at work here in our region that were in place in southern California before the establishment of CONNECT – exceptional regional assets that were not being effectively mobilized to create economic growth.

Attending the meeting were:  Linda Clark and Brian Anderson of National Grid, William Taylor of William Taylor Architect, Linda Dickerson Hartsock and Emily Whedon of Clean Tech, Bill Fisher of Onondaga County, Bob Clary of USAGraduate.com, Carissa Mattews and Martin Walls of CoE, Elle Stasz of Center State CEO, Kay Inglin of Sound Reading, Lee McKnight of Wireless Grid, Matt Williams, Jake O’Connell and Sanjeev Kumar of ITC, Anastasia Urtz and Rachna Vas of Cornell Cooperative, Dave McClear of CNY Vision, Chuck Spuches of SUNY ESF, Kevin Quinn of Syracuse University, Lenore Sealy, Paula Chapman and Hana Ehrenreich of CNY Works, Theresa Auricchio of Nectar Partners, and Kenneth Roberts

Together with The AMOS Project, Baltimore Woods Nature Center presented their award-winning Nature in the City program on Wednesday, June 2, 2010 at The AMOS Project headquarters to its corporate sponsors and board members.  The program aligns corporate sponsors with a high impact program for some of neediest school children in Central New York.  The presentation by Dave Eichorn was followed with a performance by Bill B. Brennan, the Natural Science Song and Dance Man. 

Jun 02

On May 27, The AMOS Project hosted a delegation of Russian environmentalists, guests of the International Center of Syracuse. 

The AMOS Project Hosts Russian Environmentalist Delegation

On May 27, The AMOS Project hosted a delegation of Russian environmentalists, guests of the International Center of Syracuse. The group heard from Vice President/Market Manager Joel Delmonico from Clear Channel Communications about The AMOS Project and New York’s Central Upstate Region being home to a diverse collection of educational institutions, research centers, and businesses independently recognized for their successes in the development of green technology and methods of sustainability.

The headquarters itself is an example of environmentally-friendly urban renewal; a commercial space built to LEED Gold Certified standards, inside a 130-year old Erie Canal-era building.

The delegation included Aleksandr Sergeyevich Kaynov, General Director, Biotop LLC; Mikhail Ponomarev, Deputy Head, Kursk City Administration; Dmitriy Ryzhikov, Research Associate, Severodvinsk City Museum of Local History; Denis Stark, Project Manager, Openway Service LLC and Chief, “Musora.Bolshe.Net” (“No More Garbage”); and Aleksey Volkonitskiy, Founder, Geo-Invest, LLC.

May 24

[video]

Apr 22

Not all who wander are lost

As I become increasingly known in some circles as the “sustainability guy” I’ve had a number of people forward to me interesting articles. Recently, someone sent to me several lovely pieces on pollinators, and another on seeking quantifiable means to measure a manufacturer’s overall sustainability “index”. These are really germane concerns, and from the lowly honeybee to the global chemical manufacturer, span the complexity of the solutions we must generate.

I’ve been sticking with my effort to ride my bike to work, and barring rain, or other commitments (today I drove because at lunch I need to lug an ailing appliance to the repair shop=sustainability), have been very faithful to this practice. I feel better, and enjoy the breeze on my face in the mornings, and most of all it adds a peaceful time to my day. I arrive at work invigorated and less stressed.

Recently, however, (my ego smarting) my wife told me that my practice made me look like I’d“just had my third DWI, had lost my license and looked like an inebriate, derelict.” I mistakenly posted this to facebook (hoping for some spousal reckoning and validation), and remarkably (OK, not remarkably—I know the kinds of friends I have) many of my friends jumped on the bandwagon adding insult to injury with varied and scathing raspberries. Only one of such friends, commented encouragingly, and he remarked that in Albany how nearly 30% of his coworkers ride to work.

Joking aside, it made me reflect how important regional variations are in the success of sustainability practices. In other places there appears to be a more broad appreciation of the environment, with a more clearly galvanized core population of advocates. I have a hard time imagining how discourse around biking lanes would be received in the Oswego community (regional weather challenges aside), and how many takers there would really be. (But perhaps, “if we build it, they would come”…who knows?!).

Now, I don’t want to make more of my friends’ playful derision than is justified, but I think this minor example does speak to the nature of public education efforts around sustainability. If my wife (who really does “get it”) finds my riding a bike to work reminds her more of miscreants and violators of drunk driving laws than to create an mental image of a healthy and sustainabile lifestyle, than imagine how many challenges lie ahead as we try to transition to a more sustainable community. Can’t wait to tell her about my plans for a composting toilet….

(via http://amosoneplanet.blogspot.com/)

Apr 13

Syracuse CoE: Catch the Litter Bug

Two recent letters to the Syracuse Post-Standard inspired me to write about littering, especially since my colleagues and I are planning to do something about the trash around the Syracuse Center of Excellence’s perimeter fence on April 22, aka Earth Day.

 
The letters express dismay and disgust at the amount of litter around Syracuse. Of course, one culprit is spring—that is, as soon as the snow banks melt you get to see what’s hidden beneath the carpet, so speak. Earth Day clean-ups are a chance for all of us to spring clean our neighborhoods and communities.
One letter attempts to empathize with the litterers, but “Who they are, or why they litter, I don’t completely understand.” I originally was going to ask the question in the blog, “Is picking up litter a sustainable practice?” A pretty basic hypothesis, I admit, but I wanted to ask essentially the same question as Mary Armstrong of Cazenovia: “Why do people litter?” So, for my benefit and Mary’s, some possible answers …

• Litterers are unaware of the lifecycle of materials and how toxic some are—which is why we all need to educate ourselves about what materials go into products and how/if they breakdown if not properly disposed of. Plastic bags are a great example of a common throwaway item that has a very troubling lifecycle beyond its immediate use.
• Litterers are unable to find proper places for trash or enough bins—Lack of trash cans is a perennial problem for many towns, especially a cash-strapped one such as Syracuse. And municipal recycling bins are even harder to find. However, tossing trash out of a car window is a pretty lazy option when one of those plastic bags could be used in a car to collect cigarette packets and burger wrappers.
• Disrespect for environment or community—I think Syracuse’s historically poor urban planning has lead to a certain amount of disrespect for the environment that leads to excessive littering. Beautification, green space, and smart growth, should have the effect of reducing littering as a form of civil disobedience!
• Overwhelmed by trash (packaging)—Packaging is excessive these days and being overwhelmed by lots of fiddly bits of plastic—think of all the stuff that encases and protects something as common as an ibuprofen bottle—doesn’t help matters. Reduced packaging means less litter. Packaging that can be be easily recycled or that naturally breaks down means less litter.
• Other people will clean it up—At great expense to our community, which is the subject of the other Post-Standard litter letter, by Alicia Murray of East Syracuse. A public education campaign might help explain to folks that sales/property taxes are affected by littering when the somebody picking up the trash is a city worker.

—Martin Walls, Syracuse Center of Excellence